In the 1960s the United States of America had
a big problem with communism. IT considered all communist
states around the world to be enemies, or at least adversaries,
and it seemed that there was a never-ending list of people
involved in mysterious CIA and FBI operations to root
out, discredit, or topple the communist governments across
the world. The Cold War was seen as a boom-time for spies,
assassination, revolution, and conspiracy. Organizations
like Mi6, the KGB, and the CIA were almost governments
in themselves, sending agents or “minions”
all over the world to gather information and plot dark
plots. Of course James Bond did a lot to blow it all out
of proportion, but none the less decades like the 1960s
saw a serious case of overkill infect the major world
powers like the Britain, France, the USSR, and of course
the USA. Major clashes like Afghanistan and Vietnam could
go on for decades, and many countries across the world
became silent battlegrounds for covert insertion teams,
black bag operations, political assassinations, and coup
attempts. One of the “hottest” countries in
the world was a large island called Cuba.Cuba is of course
infamous for the Cuban Missile Crisis, where a young and
angry Castro tried to build a Soviet built nuclear arsenal
to intimidate the United States in October 1962.

This bad blood started when some plucky communists
overthrew a US backed autocrat called Fulgencio
Batista in 1933, and of course Castro became more
and more Anti-American. One thing lead to another
and soon the US was perpetrating some of the most
interesting and unfortunmate conspiracies of the
20th Century.One year before the Cuban Missile Crisis
the US took a stab at trying to distablize Cuba.
It landed a well funded brigade of cuban exiles
to overthrow Castro and take back the governemtn
from the communists. Airfields were bombed, and
1500 armed men landed with then intention of starting
a war. Unfortunately when it looked like Castro
had known about the whole thing and that the brigade
was going to fail Mr. JFK himself got cold feet
and pulled the plug on the support for the ivaders,
thus collapsing the whole thing.

The administration was disgraced, many heads of the CIA
resigned, most of the exiles were captured and were released
in exchange for $53 million in food and medicine. This
was a conspiracy and was not lawful, not was it well planned,
and it made Castro and Cuba very paranoid. In that same
year the US had been trying to setup revolution from within
Cuba itself. In something called Operation Monsoose the
US began to stir up the Anti-Castro sentiment inside Cuba.
The project had a “six-phase terrorist schedule”
and would be a coordinated program of political, psychological,
military, sabotage, and intelligence operations as well
as assassination attempts and would culminate in October
1962 with an "open revolt and overthrow of the Communist
regime." Tis of course never came to pass as the
Cuban Missile Crisis put the brakes on the whole operation.
Operation Mongoose was a governement conspiracy, was covert,
and was unlawful. To this day the effects of both the
Bay of Pigs Invasion and Operation Moongoose can be felt
in the Cuban attitude towards the US and the worlds ability
to belive that the US is capable of trying anything to
get rid of its precived enemies.

People growing
up in the United States of America today might not be
too aware of historical events such as the Bay of Pigs
Invasion and Operation Moongoose. As the USA engadges
in its War On Terror and its invasion of Iraq, we can
only guess what kind of covert operations were presented
to Bush Jr. behind the palisades of power. Perhaps it
was such events such as the Bay of Pigs that cause the
Bush Administration to use open force instead of quiet
revolution; it would be better to shoot first and ask
questions later instead of looking like an idiot when
your little conspiracy went arwy and your exiles got
captiured.

It is also
interesting to note that John F. Kennedy was involved
in both of these covert operations and he is still considered
one of the most sucessful presedents in US history.
JFK was of course assasinated a little more than a year
after the Cuban Missile Crisis. That in itself is one
of the most (if not the most) famous conspiracy throeys
of the 20th Century and perhaps all time. To this day
no one is entrly sure who killed JFK, why they killed
him, or even how many people were involved. The conspiracies
of the 1960’s left a legacy of distrust and paranoia
that continues to thirve even to this day. On September
11th people were not only shocked that such horrible
things could happen on American soil; public opnion
stayed steadfast while the rubble at “Ground Zero”
was still smolsering, but soon questions were asked.
Why were our citizens attacked? Who was involved? Did
our government know anything about the attacks before
they happened? Moved made by people like Micel Moore
fanned the fames of distrust and soon 9-11 was a conspiracy
theory playground.

One thing to note about the Bay of Pigs Invasion and
Opertaion Mongoose is that they were proven to exist
and therefore are not theroies. Perhaps in fifty years
documents from the FBI and CIA will shed light on the
events of the first five years of the 21st Centruy.
Both the Pigs and the Mongoose have taught Americans
to be cautious of their government.